


Getting Away

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abused Dean Winchester, Abusive John Winchester, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Dean Uses Actual Words, Dean Winchester Goes to Stanford with Sam Winchester, Domestic Violence, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Hurt Dean Winchester, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Keeping Sam Safe, One Shot, Physical Abuse, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, Quiet, Sam Helps Dean to Safety, Sick Sam Winchester, Young Dean Winchester, Young Sam Winchester, Young Winchesters (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 15:59:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13767546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: Dean keeps his head down, and Sam is safe. Sam makes the plan. He'll help Dean get away.





	Getting Away

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure how many of these there will be, but I'm working with this theme a lot lately.

1\. Dean is shivering in the dark and scared. He is three, and he and his Dad are not going to toss around a football today. His father storms around the house. His dinner was cold. Dean is in his room, in the closet, listlessly moving an action figure he’ll never remember from hand to hand. The figure is red, so maybe it’s Spider Man, but Dean doesn’t even know. He just wants the doors to stop slamming. Then there is a thud and his mother screams. “It’s okay,” he says, dully, and squeezes the action figure tight in his hand.

2\. There is screaming, screaming, screaming, and Dean runs from upstairs, because now he is a big brother, he is four, and there is Sam, and he knows any time there’s anything he needs to do it’s to be the best big brother Sam can have. He takes Sammy from his mother’s arms. He runs as fast as his little legs can carry him to get his brother to safety. When the screaming keeps going he wishes for it to end, but he won’t cry because he knows he has Sam and he will keep him safe. That’s his one job.

3\. His Dad already knows the only one who’s going to be able to get Sammy outside and away from the fire is Dean. So he gives Sam to Dean and tells him to run, but that’s what Dean’s always done and always will. He doesn’t need to be told to do it. He’ll just do it. He’ll always do it. Run run run. Run. Sammy is too small to know this is Dean’s job, but he fits in Dean’s arms like he was always meant to be there, and Dean knows that’s something that will stay true forever. Won’t it? 

4\. They’re inseparable. They are each other’s mainstay. Of course, they have no choice, in the motel rooms or the Impala, but Dean’s comfortable that way, with Sammy sitting or laying nearby. He knows in truth as long as it’s the two of them everything is fine. He covers a bruise right above his eye and a little bit of split skin, and he thinks of Sam. It’s going to be fine because Sam’s okay. He hears Sam crying in the middle of the night sometimes, and he tries to help then too. So it’s alright. He’s got Sam. Sam’s fine.

5\. Sam dreams of running away. He tells Dean about it. He says that Dean should think about it too, but Dean’s thoughts are focused, maybe too focused, just keep one person safe and don’t worry about the rest. Let the punches come. If he’s the target, he’s in control of it. He’s got it covered and he knows what’s happening. He tells Sam to stop talking about running away, sometimes, when it hurts too much. He knows Sam needs to. He would too. But if he takes the punches, he’s in control. Sam goes quiet and Dean thinks he understands.

6\. Sam says Dean is not this man’s punching bag. He is not at boot camp, and even boot camp would be less cruel than this, than a Marine, than John fucking Winchester, which is what Sam calls him, every time he speaks the name. Dean would say Sam doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t say it, he doesn’t say anything. Dean doesn’t talk much. He has to keep his focus. Sure, John is hurting him, in theory. But keeping it together is what Dean’s here for. Sam thinks he knows, but he doesn’t. It’s not his job.

7\. Sam catches him crying in the middle of the night. His lip is split and eating has hurt all day. Sam says that they’ve got to leave, they’ve got to have a plan. Sam isn’t hit, doesn’t have a mark on him, and Dean wonders how he thinks they’re going to get away, ever. But of course Sam would think they could. Of course he would. That was what Dean signed up for, keeping Sammy’s dreams alive. A few weeks later, Sammy realizes something and says that his dream includes Dean. And if it does, Dean might just fall apart.

8\. Dean says he wouldn’t get in the way. If he went with Sam, which he’s pretty sure he won’t, but if he did, he wouldn’t let himself be a big deal. Sam could still do what he wanted. Sam doesn’t touch him much, because he knows where all of Dean’s bruises are. But he says the right things. Oh, he says the right things. And Dean starts to think maybe Sam’s been telling the truth this whole time. They only lie when they have to. When they have to. They both know that. They live it. It’s an unwritten rule.

9\. Dean lets Sam make the plan. He knows Sam is making it, and that if Dean wants to come he can, and that Sam’s leaving, really leaving, and Dean realizes that’s always been the goal. But Sam is big enough, and maybe they can both get away. Sam is nervous. He doesn’t know yet who’s going and who’s staying, and he feels sick sometimes, and Dean makes sure he gets what he needs then too. But Dean hasn’t been able to say. He keeps doing the job. He keeps on going. But he won’t say if he’ll leave,, not yet.

10\. Head down in the last few weeks, as the time comes, head down and take the punches, or make it look that way, but Dean twists just out of reach, one, two, three, times, different days, different moves. He tells Sam to pack his duffle. _Now_. They know it’s right now, right now, or never.This is when Sam knows Dean will come with him. And when the Marine tries to block them inside Dean _screams_ , a high pitched scream of rage and sudden self-preservation. “Don’t you ever touch me again, you complete piece of shit.”


End file.
